"Do it quietly. Do you want that old timer to know what we're doing here?"
"...But you told us to do it faster, Boss."
"So, this is my fault?"
"N... no."
It was hard to stay quiet, and from how deep they had already dug from the Surface, even the sound of their heart beating could be heard by the person beside them. And since there were probably more than 20 of them there, even a silent single whisper could be heard by everyone...
...and since they were digging forward into the Underworld, their gentle movements almost sounded like the cogging of a machine.
There were four Earth controllers pushing the dirt aside, creating a sort of hard wall in the process as they could not really push the dirt to the Surface.
"How... long did it take us today to run all the way from the Surface?"
"Long."
Some of the members of Mike's gang were looking behind them from where they came from; their faces, slightly excited as they knew they were nearing the Underworld — just a little more push, and they could finally be free of the prison.
"Are... are we sure the thing in our necks wouldn't explode?"
"If it would, then it would have a long time ago — something in the underground's probably making it glitch."
"...Doesn't that mean that we have no choice but to live in the Underworld? If we climb back up to the Surface, our heads would just... explode."
"Better down there than be trapped in that prison one day longer, and with that old—"
"Old...? Continue what you're going to—What the fuck!?"
"How hard is it to stay fucking quiet, brothers!?" And as his men suddenly started shouting and raising their voices, Mike could no longer help himself as he erupted in anger; his screams, completely filling the cavern,
"Do you want people to know we're digging a huge fucking Hole in the middle of the prison!?"
And yet, even with his outburst, none of his men even reacted at all — and before Mike could even realize this, he knew the reason why... blood.
One of his men was currently drenched in blood, but it obviously wasn't the man's as his eyes were filled with shock. And so, Mike just instinctively turned his eyes toward where the blood should have splattered from, only to see a face.
"That's..." Rhys could really only blink a couple of times as Mike just suddenly rode away through the Dig; making his way back to the Surface, "...That was possible?"
Rhys stood there on his own as he watched Mike's silhouette disappear into the darkness. He knew that those who had the blood of Hephaestus were capable of summoning weapons — but they could also summon full vehicles?
But of course, this was probably also the first time Rhys was seeing a Noble with Hephaestus' blood in action.
"I... want that," Rhys then whispered before just suddenly running back to the Surface to follow Mike.
As for Mike, he just glanced back from time to time; trying to see if Rhys was in his tail at all — but as he was not seeing him, he let out a sigh of relief and just increased his speed. And minutes later, he finally saw the light as well as the ceiling of the cell they dug the Hole from; Mike did not stop at all, however, only braking meters away from the exit.
And as soon as he was out of the Dig, his motorcycle erupted; turning into bits and pieces of armor that added to his already existing armor — all of this, happening in the split second the gravity shifted back to normal.
"Don't even try it!" Mike bellowed as soon as he landed back on the Surface, pointing his arms that lit up forward to whoever was waiting for him. To his surprise, however...
...no one was waiting to ambush him at all. The cell was completely empty, and the hall was completely quiet.
"What the fuck..." But of course, Mike did not let his guard down at all, even creating a drone and throwing it out of the cell to inspect the situation in the hall,
"What... the fuck!?"
And what he saw from the feed of the drone quickly made him step out of the cell to see if what he was seeing was right...
...and there, right in the center of the hall, were corpses scattered everywhere.
"What the fuck...?" Mike repeated his words again and again. He was already expecting to see bodies, but he was only expecting to see the bodies of his three men... but there were probably 2 dozen corpses scattered around the hall at the very least.
And as Mike was trying to rack his brain from all of this, he heard footsteps coming from behind him.
He quickly turned around, only to see Rhys just casually stepping out of the cell he came from — and now that Mike's hair was not the only source of light they had, Mike finally noticed that Rhys was completely soaked in blood, and he was sure the blood didn't only belong to the men he killed in the Dig.
"What... what did you do!?" Mike stretched both his arms toward Rhys as some sort of cannon materialized between his arms.
"Well..." Rhys let out a sigh as he too, started looking at the corpses scattered around the hall, "...I'm not Talia, you see. I... am not really comfortable with so many criminals working under me, so..."
"Talia's the biggest fucking criminal out of all of us, brother!" Mike screamed, "And you're with her. You a hypocrite, man. You a fucking hypocrite!"
"Yes," Rhys once again sighed as a small smile crawled on his face,
"...That's why I am compensating for my sin by killing all of you."